Quebec mobster’s wife seeks declaration of death

Maria Renda, right, and her daughter Dominica, leave a courtroom on Thursday Jan. 10, 2013, after she asked the court to have Paolo Renda officially declared dead.Pierre Obendrauf
/ The Gazette

Paolo Renda, left in pink shirt, and Frank "Rick" Andreoli (brown jacket) speak with associates Consenza Social Club, a former headquarters of the Montreal Mafia in St. LÈonard, during a 2005 Christmas party. (Charbonneau Commission)

Paolo Renda, the brother-in-law of reputed Montreal Mafia don Vito Rizzuto, disappeared in 2010 and is presumed to have been kidnapped.The Gazette
/ Gazette file photo

MONTREAL — Saying she is only seeking closure, Maria Rizzuto-Renda, the wife of reputed Mafia leader Paolo Renda, appeared before a Superior Court judge on Thursday to ask that her husband be declared dead because she has seen no sign of him for more than two years.

“This is hard for me to say. But I feel my husband is dead,” Rizzuto-Renda told Superior Court Justice Caroline Roy at the Montreal courthouse. Last year, she and her adult son and daughter filed a request seeking to have her husband officially declared dead. The Montreal police believe he was abducted on May 20, 2010. His Lexus sport utility vehicle was found abandoned on Gouin Blvd., roughly 300 metres from his home on Antoine Berthelet Ave. Roy will render her decision on the matter at another date.

Rizzuto-Renda, 65, revealed some of what is known about the last few hours her husband was seen alive. She said he went golfing in the morning and then went to the funeral home the family owns in St-Léonard. She said her husband called her from the funeral home to say he would be picking up four steaks to bring home for dinner. She said by about 3 p.m. she became worried because Renda was usually punctual. Her son-in-law decided to drive around tracing Renda’s usual route and found the Lexus with a window down and the steaks inside.

Her daughter, Domenica, who also testified Thursday, said she and her mother have been told through lawyers that construction workers saw a black Dodge Cobra with a siren on top pull over the silver Lexus and that two men, dressed as police, appeared to arrest Renda. Domenica Renda said the Montreal police were also trying to track down a black car that appeared to be following Renda when he left the location where he bought the steaks.

“It wasn’t just any man driving down the street,” Renda’s daughter said, adding she is certain the construction workers saw her father being abducted. “My father would never have left us in this situation. Never ever, ever. “

The family’s lawyer, Carmine Mercadante, told Roy that Rizzuto-Renda and her children have nothing to gain from having Renda declared dead. He said Renda had no life insurance and that his family is growing tired of dealing with things like his tax returns. Normally, relatives have to wait seven years before seeking a death certificate unless there is clear proof the person is dead. Mercadante argued the proof is clear in Renda’s case.

According to Rizzuto-Renda, no one has heard from her husband since he disappeared and she said that after nearly five decades of marriage, she would know if her husband had suddenly decided to go into hiding.

“My husband was a wonderful man. He never gave me reason to think he would run away. Impossible. There’s no reason,” said Rizzuto-Renda, dressed head to toe in black.

Rizzuto-Renda has been a witness to the turmoil that her family has gone through over the past few years. She was with her father Nicolo (Zio Cola) Rizzuto Sr. the night he was killed by a sniper inside his home in November 2010, just months after Renda disappeared. Her nephew, Nick (The Ritz) Rizzuto, was killed in December 2009. The attacks on the Rizzuto organization occurred while Rizzuto-Renda’s brother, Vito, was in a federal prison in the U.S. The organization had also been weakened by Project Colisée, an RCMP investigation that led to the 2006 arrests of several Mafia leaders in Montreal, including both Paolo Renda and Nicolo Rizzuto Sr.

Renda had just been released on parole the previous February when he disappeared. The death of his nephew caused the Parole Board of Canada to amend his release and impose severe conditions on him. Rizzuto-Renda said her husband had to call a parole officer often and that the Correctional Service of Canada could check in on him any time it felt it was necessary.

“If he golfed, they had to know who he golfed with,” she said, adding that one of Renda’s parole officers expressed concerns for her safety over having to travel to the Renda home.

At the time, the Rizzuto organization faced the most serious threat as the leaders of the Mafia in Montreal. Police sources believe a small group headed by Salvatore Montagna tried to reach a consensus on who should take over the Mafia in the city with Vito Rizzuto absent and Renda on parole. Montagna was killed in 2011.

Rizzuto-Renda made no direct mention of the turmoil the organization faced. But she did say her husband was warned that his life was in danger before he was granted parole.

“Seeing as who my husband was … you know … well … it was dangerous,” Rizzuto-Renda said with hesitation. “My husband was warned before he came out that there were people who wanted to see him.”

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